Three Senses In Space

Poul Anderson, "Pride" IN Anderson, Space Folk (New York, 1989), pp. 1-28. (Originally published in Far Frontiers, see image.)

In the wardroom of the spaceship, Anna Lovinda:

"Coffee and tea made the air fragrant. Music lilted out of speakers... Garments were loose, colorful..." (p. 2)

Fragrance, music and color: senses can be addressed not only in scenic descriptions of planetary environments but even also within the confines of a spaceship. But the crew also look outward. In a large viewscreen:

"Stars clouded blackness, icy-bright and unwinking. They streamed slowly past vision as the ship rotated." (ibid.)

The Milky Way has not shown up yet. However, a few pages later:

"The Milky Way - in her native language, the Winter Street - swept in an ice-bright torrent..." (p. 14)

This sentence, on p. 14, continues with a slight variation on the sound of space:

"...whose silence felt like a mysterious noise, something other than the whisper of blood in her ears, filling the hollowness around." (ibid.)

Thus, although the viewpoint character does not literally listen to radio static, she nevertheless hears the portentous silence of the interstellar spaces.

Next we need to know who is in the spaceship, what their mission is and what is happening between them.

(Meanwhile, I cannot get people who read one blog to read others. Today, I have posted on Comics Appreciation here and on Personal and Literary Reflections here.)